The Anthropometrics of Disability - Designing Accessible Communities

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Anthropometrics of Disability | 42
GENERAL OVERVIEW The Workshop brought together an extraordinary group of people. Their experience and knowledge was diverse and deep. The presence of government officials, software developers and designers as well as researchers ensured that the discussion was kept relevant and focused on solving very real needs for information in the field of accessible and universal design. Excellent presentations and extensive discussion enabled us to have a thorough dialogue on the major issues facing the advancement of the field. It is clear that two of the “consumers” of anthropometric research, government officials and designers, need more information than the current state of the science provides. Computer technology is creating opportunities to put a high level of anthropometric knowledge into the hands of all stakeholders in the design process. Human modeling programs can access databases of information on people with disabilities just like they do for the general population. Since human modeling software can be integrated with computer aided design (CAD) software, models of buildings or products can be tested with human models of people with disabilities. There will soon come a day when designers, clients, building code officials, consumer advocates and other stakeholders can explore three dimensional models very thoroughly before finalization of the design using a variety of computer based tools. This exploration could involve testing grip sizes, seating dimensions, clearances and even the force of operation against data on the body sizes, reach ranges and strength of different groups in the population of people with disabilities. Sophisticated human modeling software is already used this way in safety analysis, aircraft and automobile design and other applications for people without disabilities. At present, this software is quite expensive but lower cost versions are beginning to enter the market. Human models can be used to represent people of different sizes, simulate how people move and, if they include biomechanics modules, compute the forces on the human body in different postures and different loading conditions. At the University of Michigan’s Center for Ergonomics, the RERC on Wheeled Mobility at the University of Pittsburgh and Loughborough University in the UK, among other places, researchers are developing such human models of people with disabilities. While they will initially be used by specialists and well endowed design operations, less complicated programs like the one described and demonstrated by Joachim Eriksson from Lund University illustrate how computing can make it easy and affordable for rehabilitation professionals and other non designers to use anthropometric data. The open source code approach used by Eriksson could benefit the widespread utilization and adoption of such software. Currently we do not yet have access to accurate and reliable human models of people with disabilities that can easily be used in design. In particular, we do not have three- The Anthropometrics of Disability | 43
Page 1 and 2: The Anthropometrics of Disability P
Page 3 and 4: TABLE OF CONTENTS The Anthropometri
Page 5 and 6: Increasing communications and dialo
Page 7 and 8: The Impact Of Social Adaptation On
Page 9 and 10: DISCLAIMER This report was develope
Page 11 and 12: advance the field. The last section
Page 13 and 14: one another or the space required t
Page 15 and 16: 1. OVERVIEWS Four papers provided a
Page 17 and 18: wheelchair propulsion, relating the
Page 19 and 20: design solutions. • Sampling fram
Page 21 and 22: Three papers focused on experiences
Page 23 and 24: ecommendations focused on the limit
Page 25 and 26: the task, e.g. the frequency at whi
Page 27 and 28: • A database library should be or
Page 29 and 30: Because there is so much work to be
Page 31 and 32: ased directly on the performance da
Page 33 and 34: • Identify levels of acceptable r
Page 35 and 36: • development of hypotheses, how
Page 37 and 38: questions about the availability of
Page 39 and 40: • • • • • avoid overly si
Page 41: • How-to seminars would be valuab
Page 45 and 46: accessible transportation. Paquet a
Page 47 and 48: The validity of models is therefore
Page 49 and 50: and Steinfeld both emphasized the i
Page 51 and 52: • Put more emphasis on collecting
Page 53 and 54: people with disabilities. In additi
Page 55 and 56: the recommendations in this report
Page 57 and 58: James Llinas Center for Multisource
Page 59 and 60: Sarah Endicott CATEA Georgia Instit
Page 61 and 62: 2. COMPUTER MODELING AND ANTHROPOME
Page 63 and 64: form that can be used efficiently i
Page 65 and 66: The challenge for anthropologists,
Page 67 and 68: 8. THREE-DIMENSIONAL MEASUREMENTS,
Page 69 and 70: BRUCE BRADTMILLER Engineering anthr
Page 71 and 72: This research employed a direct ant
Page 73 and 74: LAURIE RINGAERT, DAVID RAPSON, JIAN
Page 75 and 76: outcome variables. Differences in f
Page 77 and 78: MATTHEW P. REED, PH.D. Advancements
Page 79: functional ability to develop datab

The Anthropometrics of Disability - Designing Accessible Communities

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